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The end goal is to have Fuchsia on phones, computers, smart speakers, and more.

Ever since 2016, Google’s been chugging along with the development of a new operating system called “Fuchsia.” Fuchsia’s been expected to replace Android at some point down the road, but the timeline for this has been pretty murky — at least until now.

A new report recently popped up from Bloomberg, and according to sources that spoke with the publication:

Ultimately the team [Google’s Fuchsia team] aspires to swap in their system for Android, the software that powers more than three-quarters of the world’s smartphones, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The aim for this is to happen in the next half decade, one person said.

Furthermore, Google also plans to have Fuchsia running on smart speakers and other “connected home devices” within the next three years.

Bloomberg’s report goes on to reiterate things we’ve already been anticipating for Fuchsia, most notably how Google wants it to eventually be the single operating system that powers smartphones, tablets, computers, smart home devices, etc. The OS is being designed to work on screens of all sizes and form factors, and to not much surprise, Google wants voice control to be at the core of Fuchsia.

It’s certainly exciting to think that we may have a brand new operating system from Google in five years time, but as it’s noted here, Google’s “yet to sign off on any roadmap for Fuchsia.”

There’s a lot going on with the Google Assistant — let’s break down the important stuff.

In May 2016, we got our very first taste of the Google Assistant with the debut of Allo. The Assistant was a big draw to Allo at the time, with Google marketing it as a helpful bot that could make restaurant reservations, search the web, and more within your conversations.

Since then, the Assistant has gained heaps of new features and expanded to smartphones, tablets, speakers, and more. Google’s shown no interest in slowing down development for the Assistant, meaning that it’s likely here for the long-haul.

Whether this is your first encounter with it or you just need a quick refresher, here’s everything you need to know about the Google Assistant.

The latest Google Assistant news

July 26, 2018 — Dutch is now an officially supported language

Good news, Dutch speakers! As of July 26, 2018, Google’s confirmed that the Google Assistant now speaks Dutch as one of its official languages.

Assuming you’ve got an Android phone running Marshmallow or later, you can now access the Assistant to ask it questions about the weather, create calendar appointments, control smart home devices, and more.

In addition to your phone, you’ll also be able to use Dutch on the Google Home later in the year once the smart speaker goes on sale in the Netherlands.

Starting today, the Assistant on your phone is getting a big visual overhaul. After prompting the Assistant, tap the icon near the top right that previously opened up the Explore page for finding new Assistant actions and it’ll now show a visual overview of your day.

Similar to old Google Now cards, this page shows things like your commute to work, the current weather, upcoming flights, packages that are on their way from recent online orders, calendar appointments, and much more.

In the near future, Google says it’ll let you see a quick overview of notes/lists from Google Keep, Todoist, Bring!, and more, a discovery page that’ll help you find nearby events/activities, reminders of where you last parked your car, and recommendations for songs and podcasts the Assistant thinks you’ll like.

This new interface is rolling out today and is available on Android and iOS for all languages the Assistant supports.

All the important details

Google Now paved the way for Google Assistant

The Google Now page compared to the new Google Feed.

Before there was the Google Assistant, we had Google Now. Google Now was introduced to the world all the way back in 2012, offering contextual info through the Google Now page and helpful answers to random questions with an “OK Google” voice command.

A lot of what made Google Now so great can still be found in the Google Assistant today, with the exception of the Google Now page. The Google Now page used to be home to cards showcasing the weather, information on packages that had shipped from online orders, boarding passes, and more. It’s since been replaced by the Google Feed – a collection of news stories Google thinks you’ll be interested in – and it’s definitely the biggest departure between the two services.

The Google Assistant as a whole is still more powerful than Google Now ever was, but long-time Android users like myself are still mourning the loss of that Now page. RIP, old friend.

When you set up a device for the first time that has the Assistant, getting started is pretty simple. Accessing it is just a voice command or tap away depending on what gadget you’re using, but if you want to really fine-tune your experience, Google’s got you covered.

Take a quick dive into your Assistant settings and you’ll find options for just about everything – including your weather preferences, changing the Assistant’s voice, retraining your voice model, picking out preferred news sources, and much more.

Of course, a smart voice assistant isn’t any good if you can’t actually use it. Fortunately, Google Assistant will be available in 52 countries —adding 38 countries this year — and 17 languages by the end of 2018.

Google Home’s the premier way to get the Assistant in your house (at least for now)

It’s great to have the Google Assistant on your phone, but if you want to truly experience just how helpful it can be, you’ll want to consider picking up a Google Home.

Google Home is Google’s line of smart speakers that put the Assistant on full-display, allowing you to control smart devices, ask random questions, set timers, play music, and more by just using your voice.

Announced at CES 2018, Smart Displays are essentially smart speakers with the Google Assistant and a touch screen display that can show you helpful visuals when talking to them. It’s basically Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot, and we can’t wait to see more from them.

Then again, is an always-listening speaker the right fit for your home?

However, the convenience of a Google Home (or any smart speaker for that matter) does come at the cost of privacy. Speakers like the Google Home are “always listening”, meaning they’re constantly on the lookout for a hot word to know when you’re talking to it (such as “Ok, Google” and “Hey, Google”).

This means the microphone on a Google Home is always active, but it’s not necessarily storing all the audio it hears when it doesn’t detect its hot word.

Most all speakers allow you to restore some privacy by being able to mute the microphone, but if you want to start asking the Assistant questions, you’ll need to unmute it first.

In the near future, the Assistant on Wear OS will support Assistant Actions (basically apps for the Assistant) and give you the option to hear its responses through your watch’s speaker or a pair of connected Bluetooth headphones.

Along with this, Google will be adding something called “smart suggestions.” After asking the Assistant for the weather, for example, you’ll see little bubbles for “weather tonight”, “use celsius”, and more so you can continue the conversation with just the tap of your finger. Google Assistant on Android offers something similar, and it’s a great tool to have.

IFTTT supercharges the Assistant’s usefulness

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a powerful online tool that allows you trigger something (that) if a certain event (this) happens. You can connect IFTTT to the Google Assistant to create your own recipes using this formula, and it can allow for some incredibly helpful combinations.

With so many devices capable of running the Assistant, it’d be easy to think that the experience you get on one gadget would be different from another. This is something that Google struggled with for a while at first, but we’re finally in a position where the Assistant experience you get on a smart speaker, for example, is the same you’ll get on your phone.

There are a handful of features here and there that still create for some discrepency, but for the most part, the Assistant you use on your Pixel 2 is the same one found on Google Home.

Google showed off Duplex — Google Assistant making natural-sounding phone calls on your behalf — at I/O 2018, but quickly noted that it was just an experiment. Flash forward a couple months, and Google announced that certain users have started testing Duplex, and a public release will be here in the next few months. Before you know it, Google Assistant will be able to book hotels, dinner reservations, hair appointments and more without you lifting a finger.

Your best friend deserves the best, and these gadgets will help you be the best.

Dogs are wonderful companions, but they also require a lot of work. Besides obvious things like cleaning up messes, dogs also need to be groomed, well fed and above all, loved. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools available to make your pet parenthood easier.

A lot of dogs shed to keep cool, which means a house that easily gets covered in fur. If you have multiple dogs, you may need to vacuum a few times a week just to keep things under control. Dyson’s handheld vacuums aren’t the most powerful options out there — especially compared to a corded vacuum. But Dyson vacuums are amazing for how easy they are to maintain and how portable they are. There are more expensive models, but the V7 series is a great middle ground that offers a lower price than higher end models, but still enough battery life and attachments to get the job done. The V7 vacuums offer 30 minutes of run time, so you should be able to vacuum most of your house in one charge. If you need more power, you can kick it in MAX mode for six minutes. The vacuum on all of the V7 models is the same, but the Animal model comes with specific attachments to help you get pet hair out of the carpet.

The Dyson V7 Animal is available for $400, but we’ve seen it marked down as far as $314.

Of course, the easiest way to keep dog hair from getting into your carpet is to brush your dog regularly. Unfortunately, most dogs don’t like the feeling of a prickly brush. But every dog loves when you pet them, and Grooming Gloves make it easy to brush your dog while petting them. The gloves aren’t nearly as unpleasant as a stiff brush, but there are plenty of soft grooves along the fingers of the glove to pick up loose hair. The hair comes right off of the glove too, so you don’t have to deal with some nasty adhesive. There are similar gloves for less money, but the HandsOn gloves are the highest rated right now on Amazon.

The HandsOn Grooming Gloves are available in black and green in various sizes for $25.

As someone who spent too many nights growing up chasing my overeager dog around my town after she ran out an open door, GPS trackers are a miracle. Of course, a tracker doesn’t do any good if you can’t actually follow it, so Whistle 3’s GPS tracker comes with LTE support in addition to the GPS chip. This does mean a recurring payment of $7 per month, but that’s a small price to pay to keep your best friend safe. The tracker has a battery life of seven days, so be sure to charge it every weekend. You can also set safe spaces within the app, which are based on trusted Wi-Fi networks. Finally, you get the ability to track your dogs activities to help keep them in shape.

Some dog breeds — especially those that were bred to be guard dogs — get separation anxiety when they can’t see their owner. Other incidents like thunder and fireworks will make any dog panic, and it’s heartbreaking as an owner to not be able to communicate with and comfort the dog. Fortunately, there’s a tool to help. Calming vests — sometimes known as thunder shirts — do the same things for dogs that weighted blankets do for humans with anxiety. The effect on my dog was nearly instant: she went from barking nonstop when I left (as my neighbors kindly told me) to only barking for a minute or so. She also destroyed much less of my apartment with the comfort vest on. If you have an anxious dog, a comfort vest may be the best gift you can give them.

Comfort Zone’s Calming Vest is available in various sizes between $32 and $42.

There are plenty of cheaper video camera systems for your dog, but the Lenovo Smart Display lets you do other things like watch YouTube videos or follow along with food recipes. Not something that your dog will care about, but it makes a Smart Display a better choice for you. There’s also the fact that you can video chat with your best friend from any iOS or Android device with Google Duo. A home security system will be a better way to watch your dog through your whole house, but the Smart Display is a great, inexpensive option if you keep your dog in a single room during the day.

Google Home has long allowed users to set which news sources they hear when they ask Assistant to “play the news,” but with the arrival of Smart Displays from Lenovo and others, many of these briefings now have video, too.

That means when you ask your Lenovo Smart Display to “play the news,” you can watch it, too! Here’s how to get it set up.

How to add video sources to your news briefing

All of the work is done inside the Google Home app, because the Lenovo Smart Display is basically a Google Home with a screen. That means that changes made to the news briefing order will affect all other Google Home speakers associated with your account. Keep that in mind if, for example, you’d prefer to watch your news on one screen and listen to it with a different speaker.

Open the Google Home app.
From the home screen, tap on the three-line hamburger menu.

Select More settings.

Scroll down to News and tap on it.
Select Add news sources.
Check off news sources that say “Video available on Smart Displays”.
Optional Return to previous screen and select Change Order.

Optional Move video briefings up to the top of the list.

What video sources are there?

Right now, it’s early days in the life of video news sources inside of Google Assistant, so the selections are slim.

The great thing about this new feature is that even if you don’t want to mess with your existing news briefing list — say you have a Google Home or other Assistant-based speaker — you can always just ask the Lenovo Smart Display to “play Reuters TV” or “show me CNBC,” making it super easy to catch up on the news really quickly.

Lenovo and Google teamed up to create the Smart Display, a smart home hub with a screen that takes direct aim at the $230 Amazon Echo Show.
The Smart Display comes in two sizes — 8″ for $200 and 10″ for $250 — and has an HD screen, two speakers, and a modern design that doesn’t scream “tech.”
Lenovo’s hardware and Google’s Assistant are a perfect match.
The Smart Display has a Google Chromecast built into it too, so you can watch videos or listen to music from dozens of services using apps on your smartphone or tablet.
The Smart Display is easily the best smart home hub I’ve tested — I’m a long-time Amazon Echo fan, but I’m considering a switch to Google’s side.

We’ve combed through all the deals to bring you the best ones in every category, and found all the products that have also been featured in our buying guides. That means these products are the best of the best. We’ve tested many of these items and the ones we haven’t tested are backed by many expert and buyer reviews.

Click on a link to jump to a category and see all our buying guide recommendations:

Those of you who are building a smart home may need the Echo Plus instead of the regular Echo because it has a built-in hub that works with many smart home devices like the Philips Hue light bulbs, so you don’t need dozens of hubs around.

Anyone who has kids and an iPad has probably wished for a more rugged (and cheaper) tablet to give their kids. Wish granted! Amazon’s Kids Edition Fire Tablets are perfect for youngsters. We recommend both of them in our guides to tablets and Fire Tablets.

This bundle has many of our top picks in it: the Samsung Galaxy S9, which is one of our top-rated phones; the Amazon Echo, which is our favorite smart speaker; the Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit, which is our top pick for the best smart home hub; and the Echo Spot, which is an honorable mention in our smart speaker guide. You get all that for the price of the phone alone, so you basically get $340 of free smart home tech.

The Moto G6 is the best budget phone you can buy — period. It has a decent processor, Full HD screen, slick glass body, and decent cameras. Plus, it works on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon without any problems.

As far as iPhone docks go, TwelveSouth makes the best one. The Hi-Rise 2 holds your phone upright while it charges without obstructing the screen or the home button. If you get the deluxe version, you get a lightning cable, though it will cost you a bit more.

Of all the Android tablets you can buy, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3 stands out because it has an excellent stylus and it looks quite a bit like an iPad. That’s why it’s one of our favorite Android tablets.

Ring’s Video Doorbell 2 is our top pick for the best doorbell you can buy because it has great motion detection, a 1080p camera with two-way audio, and it’s wireless, so you won’t have to hard-wire it into your home.

If you want to have a smart doorbell that lets you see people as they approach your home, the ring Video Doorbell Pro is an excellent option that we highly recommend. It has to be hard-wired, though, so keep that in mind.

Ever since Google first announced its Smart Display platform back at CES in January, I’ve been more than eager to get my hands on one to experience the future of living with the Google Assistant in my home. I use my Google Home and Home Mini every day for a variety of things, and as much as I love them, the idea of essentially having one with a screen slapped on top sounds like a dream come true.

There are a few Smart Displays that have been announced, but so far, the one that’s peeked my interest the most is Lenovo’s.

The Lenovo Smart Display is the very first one to hit the market, and even though it’s a bit more expensive and has a few kinks to work out compared to the tried and true Google Home, there are a few reasons why I’d like to have it over Google’s iconic speaker.

Video support

The screen on the Lenovo Smart Display is obviously the biggest draw to it over the Google Home, and one of the reasons I’m most excited for this new addition is that it means I’ll have a new screen for watching videos on.

Like most people, I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen. Whether I’m cooking dinner, unloading the dishwasher, or scrubbing down the counters, there’s a lot of time spent in that room of my apartment. I typically play a YouTube video on my phone for some background noise while going about these tasks, and while that’s fine, it means having to move my phone around the kitchen with me so I can hear it and glance at what’s on its screen.

With the Lenovo Smart Display, I’ll be able to just ask the Google Assistant to play a YouTube video and have it showcased on a large 10.1-inch display with speakers that are far better than what’s on my OnePlus 6.

I don’t think I’ll be sitting down around a Smart Display anytime soon to watch full-length movies, but for those times when I want something to glance at every now and then while doing chores or preparing dinner for the night, I’m ecstatic to have something that’s been designed with that sort of use in mind.

Deeper control of apps/services

Video support is one feature the Lenovo Smart Displays offer that’s completely nonexistent on the Google Home, but along with charting unexplored frontiers, the use of a screen on Lenovo’s machine also allows for richer experiences that are already available with audio-only Assistant speakers.

For example, I can talk to my Google Home and ask it to dim my Hue Lights or change the temperature with a Nest thermostat all day long. The same exact thing can be done with the Lenovo Smart Display, but after that first command is given, you’ve got access to on-screen controls to fine-tune your lights or AC even more.

The Lenovo Smart Display is taking existing Google Home features and making them ten-times better.

Another way this can come in handy is with music. With the Lenovo Smart Display, you can actually browse through various playlists and decide which one you’d like without having to pick something specifically with just your voice. Once a song is playing, you can quickly glance at the screen to see what it’s called, fast forward, or see how much time is left with that particular track.

The Google Home can read aloud recipes, but with the Lenovo Smart Display, you get visual step-by-step directions and pictures of the dish you’re making to make the experience even more helpful. You can set timers on Google Home without any trouble, but on the Lenovo Smart Display, watch the seconds tick by without having to constantly ask “Hey, Google, how much time if left on my timer.”

You get my point.

A lot of what the Lenovo Smart Display does you can already do on Google Home, but because of the screen, the way you interact with these commands/questions is much more useful and seamless compared to an audio-only experience.

It’s a digital photo frame for the modern era

Along with all of the smart home control, powerful speakers, and everything else the Lenovo Smart Display has to offer, it’s also the best digital picture frame you can buy in 2018.

Digital picture frames have been around for years, but whether it was due to low-resolution screens, huge bezels, wonky controls, etc., the execution of them has always left something to be desired. The Lenovo Smart Display fixes all of that.

The HD or Full HD panels on the 8-inch and 10.1-inch models, respectively, look great, the bezels aren’t overly large, and best of all, your pictures are seamlessly added through your Google Photos account.

In addition to being able to pull up specific photos with just your voice, you can also set certain albums/pictures to regularly cycle through to ensure you’ve always got a memory to look at when walking by your Smart Display. And, since these are all pulled in from the cloud, you don’t have to mess with loading photos on an SD card.

The price is right

Last but certainly not least, the Lenovo Smart Display absolutely kills it when it comes to price.

For the 8-inch model, you’ll need to hand over just $199. On its own, that’s already a good price. When you compare it to the Google Home and realize it’s just $50 more than Google’s screenless-speaker and $30 less than the Echo Show, it becomes an even better deal.

The 10.1-inch screen is certainly nice to have, but for most people, the $199 model offers the same experience in a more compact form factor. And, for technically less than $200, I can see a lot of folks picking this up as a Christmas present come the holiday season this year.

Why do you want the Lenovo Smart Display?

Those are the reasons why I think the Lenovo Smart Display is a better purchase over the Google Home, but what about you? Are you excited for the Smart Display future or are you perfectly happy not having a screen for the Google Assistant? Let me know in the comments below!

Hold on to your wallets: Amazon Prime Day (and a half) officially kicks off at 3 p.m. today, July 15, but some of the best deals are already live.

Amazon’s deals on all of its devices kick off now: You can save up to 50% on select Alexa-enabled products, which include everything from the second-generation Echo to the fashion-oriented Echo Look. And once 3 p.m. hits, you can expect new deals to drop every five minutes (farewell, Monday productivity). Prime Day is bringing massive savings on other non-Amazon tech, including up to 35% on select laptops, “premium brand” 4K smart TVs for under $500, and up to 40% off smart lighting.

Over a million deals are happening over the course of 36 hours, which seems like a good thing until you stop to consider that’s a hell of a lot of products to sort through to find the ones you want. With that in mind, we’re pulling together the top gadgets on sale here. Click through to see our picks thus far, and continue to check back through 3 a.m. on July 18, when Prime day comes to an end.

If you’re looking for a new phone, you can’t do much better than this Samsung bundle, which includes the Galaxy S9, an Echo, Echo Spot, and Samsung Smart Home kit.

Refresh your morning routine and test out Amazon’s machine learning-enabled styling capabilities with the Echo Look. The device, on sale for $100 off, makes it easy to track your outfits and even decide what to wear to a wedding if you’re torn between two dresses.

Whether you want to put an Echo in another room of your house or try the sound-enhanced capabilities of the second generation, now is the time to buy the device. You’ll save $30 through 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

Buy any Amazon Echo device during Prime Day, and you’ll get six free months of Amazon Music Unlimited, the company’s streaming service (regularly $7.99 per month), included.

Looking for an inexpensive tablet to stream shows on the plane? Opt for Amazon’s Fire HD 8, for just $49.99. If you want a charging dock, too, you can get the two together for $79.99 (regularly $109.99).

For the times you need to zone out — or flights when you actually want to hear the movie you’re watching — Sony’s wireless noise-canceling headphones really do the trick. Save $100 on them this Prime Day.

CommuniThings has been selected by Orange Fab BeLux – an accelerator programme for startups.

Etay Oren, CEO of CommuniThings, said: "With the smart parking solution we developed for the city of Liège, users can view real-time parking occupancy on their smartphone and even navigation to the available space. Once parked, they are allowed 30 minutes of free parking in order to carry out necessity shopping. Parking controllers are informed in real-time of the parking duration.

“Parking managers receive statistics on usage patterns per parking and comparative analysis between periods. Previous deployments showed a threefold increase in number of vehicle rotations per spot,” added Oren.

“We are also very proud to launch this smart parking solution over the NB-IoT technology and we look forward to deepen our cooperation with Orange's technical experts to introduce additional dedicated low-power solutions for different segments across cities and enterprises."

In the UK, Breed Reply, an active operational investor in early-stage IoT businesses, has invested in two new IoT startups: Norway-based CageEye and Germany-based ubirch. Both of these companies have secured a total of €5.8 million in funding. Breed Reply’s investment move allows it to expand